This
past weekend, my husband and I visited our son who lives in Somerville,
and we noted that one of the galleries was located there. (Somerville -
where Tufts University is located - is basically one of the communities
that ring Boston, as is Brookline, where another of the galleries is
located. These communities feel like a part of Boston!)

The
gallery we visited is in the basement of the Somerville Theater (in
walking distance from my son's home!) and is open to ticketed movie
goers whenever the theater is open. We were at the theater to see the
movie Lion (I highly recommend it), and came early so that we could
visit the museum for our first time. Here's a bit about the museum and
it's philosophy, which is all very much in tongue-in-cheek fun. And by
the way, if you stick with this post till the end, you'll see what I
thought was the craziest piece on display in the museum!

The
museum has over 600 pieces, but only about 20-40 are on view at each
location at any given time, so presumably, you could return several
times to see different parts of the collection. On display when we were
there were "Dopplehangers" - Selected works from the POOR-TRAITS
Collection that resemble, intentionally or not, famous people. For
example, below we have "Pablo Presley"

Please
note, the quality of the photos in this post are as bad as the
artwork. It's a basement, the lighting is awful, and the space made it
hard to photograph many of paintings straight-on. And there was a
rolling ladder thingy in front of one of the paintings. Anyhow, here's
what the gallery actually looks like:

Yup,
like I said, it's a basement. That's my husband, my son, and his
girlfriend, above. They are not sitting there because they are bored
waiting for me; they are making dinner reservations for us, for after
the movie! Here's some pics from the collection. Reading the
tongue-in-cheek descriptions can be half the fun, so I am including
them here with the pics of some of the artwork.

Of
course, there were bound to be paintings of Michael Jackson in a
collection of bad portrait paintings (poor-traits). [Above and below]
In the painting below, the hand is pretty hysterical, and then there's
that squared-off chin...

And
presidents. Lots of presidents! Here are a few of them. Below, it
looks like Bill Clinton has tiny hands, and perhaps has been painting
some brown furniture, or burned his face on the grill while cooking
burgers?

What's
so 'bad' about this portrait of President Obama below? It's not the
image of him, but the strange collection of repeating faces that
surround him,including Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman.

And then there's this, below.... EEK!!

And more singers and actors and such, and even an iconic president's wife...

These are pretty funny!

And this:

And for the Grand Finale, here it is, the 'Torso Phone'!

I
hope you've enjoyed this little tour; It was hard to narrow down what
to share with you! Anyhow, I'll close with a closeup of a rather
awkward hand. Meanwhile, If you are ever in Boston, instead of
visiting the MFA (Museum of Fine Art), how about visiting the Museum of
Bad Art instead!

Saturday, January 28, 2017

A week ago, my region of NYSATA, our state art teachers association, held a hands-on professional development workshop (actually now called CTLE, for Continuing Teacher and Leader Education, here in NY), with an art consultant from School Specialty presenting three projects using products they sell. I was in charge of making all the arrangments, so I didn't get a chance to complete all the projects, so I'm working on finishing them at home . But today, I attended a hands-on workshop put on by a neighboring region, so,lucky me, I got to play with encaustic waxes all day, with a bunch of really terrific "north country" art teachers!

I made 4 pieces, incorporating some collage into the encaustic wax. The two pieces pictured above are on 8"x10" canvas board panels. Some patterned papers were collaged into these pieces, minimally. The two pieces below are on small square masonite panels, and incorporate more collage than the two pics above. I don't think the photos really show the colors/textures the way I'd like.

I didn't use the camera flash, because of the glare, but the colors are definitely off/dull in these photos, even though I tried to adjust! The above piece is made from pieces of colored class and some small old photos of a waterfall, tied together with the encaustic wax. Below, layers of patterned papers and colored and clear waxes. I liked it when I began, and then it quickly got overworked and I couldn't get back the original freshness. It was my first piece today, and I think I did better once I had the medium more under control.

Here's some closeups of one of my pieces, my last piece, that I made rather quickly. I really enjoyed making all of these encaustic pieces, but I'm skeptical about their longevity, since heat can melt and alter the surface. Anyone have experience using encaustic waxes?

But this one, below, and at the top of the post, is my favorite of the day.

Some other people made some really cool stuff, but I only got a few photos. Aren't these terrific?

One gal had this adorable mini-violin case as her pencil case. Isn't it adorable?

Here's a glimpse (below) of one piece that I began in last week's workshop and finally finished a couple of days ago. When I complete the other two projects, I'll write about all three in a separate blog post, because they deserve their own post!

About Me

Hi, I'm Phyl and after 36 years as an art teacher, I am now officially retired, but that doesn't mean I'm done with art education. The truth is, I'm more involved now than ever before! I hope you'll visit me often as I share art lesson ideas, thoughts on art education, my own personal artistic and photographic endeavors, and tidbits about my family and the beautiful environment where we live.